Many cars and trucks presently on the road and presently being produced by vehicle manufacturers have hood ornaments permanently attached by, for example, a spring attachment means at or near the front of the hood. These hood ornaments can easily be removed from the vehicle by forcibly pulling them off. Recently, hood ornaments have become popular targets for vandals and are being removed from cars at an alarming rate. It is not uncommon for an owner of a car, especially a prestigious car such as a Mercedes, Porsche, Cadillac, and so on, to have the hood ornament stolen several times in a year. At a cost of perhaps $50.00 to $100.00 per unit, it becomes quite expensive to continue to replace stolen hood ornaments. After several replacements, a vehicle owner might very well be inclined not to replace the hood ornament again, thus leaving the car in a less than ideal aesthetic state.
In order to preclude hood ornaments from being unwantedly removed from vehicles, there is needed a hood ornament that is easily removable from and replaceable onto its appropriate location on the hood area of a vehicle. Preferably, presently existing and installed hood ornaments would be adapted to be removable from and replaceable onto a vehicle.
Such removable and replaceable hood ornaments might, however, be inclined to be unwantedly removed from the vehicle by the flow of air encountered during driving, especially during high speed driving. Such unwanted removal is, of course, unsafe, and therefore unacceptable. Further, such a hood ornament might also be prone to loosening over a period of time with repeated removal and replacement.
In many countries, provinces, or states, there are regulations that call for hood ornaments to be flexibly mounted on a vehicle, such that the hood ornaments do not present a safety hazard in the event of a person contacting the hood ornament installed on the vehicle. It is important, therefore, that a removable and replaceable hood ornament still be flexibly mounted so as to be safe. Further, it is important that when the hood ornament is removed, a portion of the hood ornament remaining on the vehicle is safe, in terms of it being configured so as not to cause injury to a person who might happen to contact it.